Chicken or Egg/Bucking Broomsticks/Wizard chess

[ladyramkin2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 89542

I'm sure all of these points have been brought up before, but I am 
currently re-reading from the beginning (how many times will I need 
to do that before Book 6:  Estimate.) and keep discovering things to 
ponder.

l.  I am wondering whether Percy may be a victim of the middle-child 
symdrome.  I know that he is not, in fact, a middle child, but Bill 
and Charlie on the one hand, and Ron, Ginny and the twins on the 
other seem to form two separate blocks, with Percy isolated in the 
middle.  My own middle child had problems due to his position in the 
family and I think I have probably over-compensated.  I am wondering 
if Mrs. Weasley did the same thing.  So, which came first, the 
chicken or the egg?  Did Molly over-compensate because Percy was what 
he was, or was Percy what he was because Molly over-compensated? 
(Could have been phrased more elegantly, but you know what I mean).

2.  In the Quidditch chapter(Chapter 11 Page 140 UK edition PS/SS) I 
was struck by Hagrid's words: "Can't nothing interfere with a 
brookstick, except powerful Dark Magic."  Notice he said "any" 
brookstick, not just the Nimbus Two Thousand. So any broomstick 
wouldn't buck unless there was a powerful hex placed on it.Would this 
account for Snape's problem with the brookstick on OOp (Chapter 
26 "Seen and Unforeseen"?) rather than Snape's incompetance.

3.  I haven't seen this answered, and I'm probably just mis-reading 
something, but in Chapter Twelve "The Mirror of Erised" (PS/SS) they 
are talking about chess: 

"Ron's set was vry old and battered....However, old chessmen weren't 
a drawback at all.  Ron knew them so well he never had trouble 
getting them to do what he wanted.

Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnegan had lent him and they 
didn't trust him at all."

I am puzzled as to why they were using two different sets of 
chessmen.  Or does it mean they took turns which set to use? I'm sure 
there is some simple explanation, I'm just not getting it.

Sylvia (sorry this is so long - I don't usually rabbit on to this 
extent.)